10 Best Pokémon Spin-Off Games You MUST Play

Pokémon Conquest was a game that just shouldn’t have worked. A crossover with Pokémon and tactical RPG Nobunga’s Ambition (Pokémon’s first true crossover), the two titles didn’t seem particularly compatible, nor did they share too similar a slice of audience. However, it’s safe to say that Conquest proved the doubters wrong.

The game uses turn based battling, but it’s nothing like the four move, status ailments, 1v1 style of the main series. Instead, battles are more like actual battles, with (admittedly small) armies of Pokémon and their trainers - Warlords, as they’re called - lining up against each other from across the field.

Unlike other battle based games that have spun off from the main series, type advantages do carry over, so it has a more realistic edge that suits its tactical leaning. The fact that the party needed managed more than a regular game breathed life into the world as well.

As far back as Kanto’s Lt. Surge, there’s been theories flying about the great Pokémon war; some main series games have even given a little nod towards it. Pokémon Conquest does a great job of showing how such a war would operate.